Roadkill

Desperate times call for desperate measures. The Illinois General Assembly has passed a bill that would allow citizens to collect the carcasses of fur-bearing mammals found along public roadways, reducing the shameful waste of perfectly good roadkill while saving precious taxpayer dollars. If Gov. Pat Quinn signs the measure into law, Illinoisans will be free to retrieve dead beaver, mink, weasel, fox, raccoon, muskrat, badger and opossum — during the legal hunting or trapping season, with the required...

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The Melbourne Rebels' loss to the Highlanders in Dunedin continued their dismal record on foreign shores but coach Tony McGahan believes Australia's Super Rugby strugglers can upset the double-defending champion Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday. Though increasingly masters of their own domain, the Rebels have been largely dreadful after clearing customs, and the 33-30 loss to the erratic Highlanders at the weekend was their 13th in succession outside Australia.

Coyotes and other animals will have to work harder for their supper now that state workers will be scooping up roadkill once again, officials said Tuesday. Crews this week resumed picking up dead animals from state-maintained roads, as well as mowing grass alongside highways. The work had been halted because of a funding shortfall. "Unfortunately there are not many natural predators for a lot of animals, so they are hit by cars," said Jim Stumpner, the Chicago region highway...

There's nothing new in Chicago about theater in small spaces - that's a crucial part of the city's aesthetic. If you glance at my recommended shows, you'll see several pieces staged in theaters with fewer than 100 seats, including "Rabbit," "Lascivious Something," "In the Company of Men" and the not-to-be-missed production of "The Knowledge" at the Steep Theatre, where, as one of my theater-loving Tribune colleagues recently noted, you are plenty close...

HELENA, Montana (Reuters) - The Montana Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would allow residents to harvest for food big game animals like deer, elk and moose killed by vehicles. The Senate voted 28-21 to pass the roadkill salvage bill. It has previously cleared the House, and now goes to Governor Steve Bullock, a Democrat, who has not yet indicated whether he will sign it. Under the measure, law-enforcement officers would issue permits for the salvage of deer, elk,...

By Nichola Groom LOS ANGELES, May 20 (Reuters) - In October 2004, then California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger rolled up to a pioneering fueling station at Los Angeles International Airport in a hydrogen-powered metallic blue Hummer loaned to him by General Motors Corp. The "California Hydrogen Highway," Schwarzenegger's vision to ensure that every Californian would have access to a hydrogen fueling station by the end of 2010, called for the state...

There's nothing new in Chicago about theater in small spaces - that's a crucial part of the city's aesthetic. If you glance at my recommended shows, you'll see several pieces staged in theaters with fewer than 100 seats, including "Rabbit," "Lascivious Something," "In the Company of Men" and the not-to-be-missed production of "The Knowledge" at the Steep Theatre, where, as one of my theater-loving Tribune colleagues recently noted, you are plenty close...

A plain-looking bus full of ticketed passengers pulled up to an ordinary Chicago street corner on Tuesday night and a couple of Nigerian women jumped on board. One was wary of the people on the bus and sat quietly, watching. The other, younger woman bounded around like a starry-eyed kid at Christmas. "I'm going to my home in Chicago," she told anyone and everyone. "I'm going to be an American . Where Obama lives. " Her fellow passengers responded to this gregarious enthusiasm.

Coyotes and other animals will have to work harder for their supper now that state workers will be scooping up roadkill once again, officials said Tuesday. Crews this week resumed picking up dead animals from state-maintained roads, as well as mowing grass alongside highways. The work had been halted because of a funding shortfall. "Unfortunately there are not many natural predators for a lot of animals, so they are hit by cars," said Jim Stumpner, the Chicago region highway maintenance chief at...

By Dan Boyce HELENA, Montana, March 21 (Reuters) - The Montana Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would allow residents to harvest for food big game animals like deer, elk and moose killed by vehicles. The Senate voted 28-21 to pass the roadkill salvage bill. It has previously cleared the House, and now goes to Governor Steve Bullock, a Democrat, who has not yet indicated whether he will sign it. Under the measure, law-enforcement officers would issue ...

"Roadkill" is a Canadian road movie, which is to say that despite the alienation, nihilism and directionless anger built into the form, it still manages to remain nice. That's no easy task in a movie where the ruling metaphor is provided by small animal corpses strewn across the highways of northern Ontario. "It's a symbol," ventures one character, a pretentious film director named Bruce (who is played by the film's actual director, Bruce McDonald) as he trains his camera...

Desperate times call for desperate measures. The Illinois General Assembly has passed a bill that would allow citizens to collect the carcasses of fur-bearing mammals found along public roadways, reducing the shameful waste of perfectly good roadkill while saving precious taxpayer dollars. If Gov. Pat Quinn signs the measure into law, Illinoisans will be free to retrieve dead beaver, mink, weasel, fox, raccoon, muskrat, badger and opossum — during the legal hunting or trapping season, with the required...

What passes for big news on Colorado City, Texas' KVMC-AM 1320 is roadkill. Every time a critter meets an untimely end within a mile of the West Texas station, owner Jim Baum reports it to his listeners. In three years of roadkill tracking, Baum has found skunks, a fox, a vulture, a roadrunner and a number of USOs -- unidentified squashed objects. But, strangely, not one armadillo. "What that tells me is the armadillos out here are a lot smarter," Baum said. ...

"Tragedy: a tragedy" ✭ ✭ 1/2 "It's the worst world in the world, Frank," a TV reporter gravely informs a news anchor back at the studio in playwright Will Eno's existential comedy "Tragedy: a tragedy," currently in a Chicago premiere from Red Tape Theatre. Few modern writers are as deft at wordplay as Eno, who stuffs some of the most insanely enjoyable verbal inanities into the mouths of his characters in this satire of...

Roadkills are Barbara Broussard's raw data. Not just any animal that has had an untimely encounter with a moving vehicle will satisfy her. Don`t call her with news of a defunct deer. A dead skunk in the middle of the road is just the subject of a quirky rock song from the 1970s to her. Badgers are her business. Although it would seem more appropriate for our neighbor to the north-Wisconsin is, after all, the Badger State-it is the Prairie State that has...

While driving along Southwest Highway on a recent morning, Palos Park Mayor Jean Moran could only sigh with sadness as she passed the remains of an unlucky deer. The next day, with a second gruesome sighting, her sigh turned to disgust. By the third day she was bristling that no one cared enough to remove the decaying carcass from the roadway. "When you pass by every day and see some poor creature starting to glue itself to the pavement, it's not only ghastly and disgusting,...